JOHN BERGGRUEN - NEEDLES & PENS

01.16.13

Comment by AB: Way way back in the good old days, before the Internet and search functions like Google Images, people used archives and library files to search for pictures of specific things. With that in mind, Taryn Simon harks back to the third floor of the Mid-Manhattan Library on Fifth Avenue at 40th Street, where some 1.2 million hard-copy images sourced from magazines, postcards, newspapers, etc. are inventoried. The images have been annotated, catalogued, organized and divided into approximately 12,000 categories, the images pertaining to each category contained within a folder.

Library cardholders can borrow up to sixty images at a time. Taryn Simon does just that, arranging her borrowed images into patterns against plain white backgrounds, artistically mimicking Internet image search results of today, and then photographing them for posterity. A fascinating commentary on the primitivity of basic research just a few short years ago. Worth a visit.

"Rear Views" - photography by Taryn Simon at John Berggruen Gallery.

"Rear Views" - Taryn Simon photograph at John Berggruen Gallery.

Pinkie cam detail of "Rear Views" photograph by Taryn Simon.

Photographer Taryn Simon art John Berggruen Gallery.

"Explosions" - photograph by Taryn Simon at John Berggruen Gallery.

Pinkie cam detail of photograph by Taryn Simon in above image.

"Beards and Moustaches" - photographs by Taryn Simon at John Berggruen Gallery.

Comment by AB: Xara Thustra releases his official 2013 Calendar, gives the first 25 away free, cooks a free meal for everyone who attends, and creates the perfect occasion for conversation, conviviality, relaxation and hanging out.